On comparing two methods for approximate conditional inference

Approximate conditional inference for a real parameter in the presence of nuisance parameters was examined from a sample-space differential viewpoint in Fraser and Reid (1988) and a conditional inference procedure was proposed. Conditional likelihood-based inference in the same setting was discussed in Cox and Reid (1987), where emphasis was placed on orthogonalizing the nuisance parameter to the parameter of interest. In this paper the sample-space partitions of the two methods are examined for the case that the minimal sufficient statistic has the same dimension as the parameter space. The methods are identical if observed and expected information gives the same orthogonality; an example indicates how they can differ more generally. A specially chosen reparameterization provides some geometrical insight to the methods and allows a comparison in terms of score functions and locally defined orthogonal parameters.     

Mixture designs for five components in orthogonal blocks

The methods developed by John and Draper et al. of partitioning the blends (runs) of four mixture components into two or more orthogonal blocks when fitting quadratic models are extended to mixtures of five components. The characteristics of Latin squares of side five are used to derive rules for reliably and quickly obtaining designs with specific properties. The designs also produce orthogonal blocks when higher order models are fitted.     

THE IMPACT OF BAD WRITING IN ECONOMICS

We find significant style differences between articles written by economists for their professional journals and articles by the same economists in the Wall Street Journal. We find no evidence that style influences the professional success of economists, which suggests that the private rewards to improving the quality of writing are low. Indeed, each community of scholars has probably adopted a "professionally correct" writing style, from which its members diverge little. However, scholars do alter their rhetorical style to communicate effectively with audiences other than the professional community. This suggests that intra- and inter-group (written) communication by economists is efficient.     

An improved two stage randomized response strategy

Mangat and Singh (1990) have suggested a two stage randomized response technique to estimate the proportion of population possessing a sensitive attribute. The procedure was shown to be more efficient than the procedure due to Warner (1965). Recently, Tracy and Osahan (1993) have suggested a modification to the Mangat and Singh (1990) procedure which results in a more efficient strategy in practice. In this paper we propose a modification to the Tracy and Osahan (1993) procedure. The modified procedure is a generalization of Tracy and Osahan (1993) and is always more efficient than their strategy. An empirical study has also been undertaken to find the extent of relative efficiency.